The Laukaa Eco-School
The village schools in Savio, Tarvaala and Vuontee were joined together in one larger school in Vuontee, Laukaa, in the fall of 2018. The goal was to build an ecologically sustainable school for more than a hundred students for the next hundred yeas. The school was built with solid wood.
The goal of the eco-school was to develop a modern village school based on an innovative circular economy and local services, which combines healthy and sustainable construction, sustainable energy management (local energy), local food and local transport with pedagogic room layouts. The building houses the three village schools, a preschool and a nursery. The room layouts were designed with consideration to the new curriculum requirements; the traditional classrooms were replaced with adaptable solutions and multifunctional spaces. The open learning environment motivates a new type of learning experience and the comfortable spaces aim to bring the whole community together.
Project Management with a Set Budget
The Laukaa Eco-School is heated with a local hot water system which uses pellet fuel and light fuel oil. The school is on groundwater land, and so for example geothermal heating was not an option. Using biogas might be possible. The frame material options were considered at the project design stage by VTT, and cross laminated timber (CLT) was chosen after the project management contractor found it to be the most cost-effective solution. The project management style suited the project well, as the plans were still being refined during the construction stage and the customer was able to decide on the final purchases. The school was built in two stages, the first of which was the development and planning stage and the second was the construction stage.